The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-03-08
A LION TAMER.
He Tells How to Train Wild
Beasts.
As Rule Drink Kills the Kings of thu
PrOfession-George wOmbweIrs ''Suc-
cessful' Dog and Lion
Fight.

al see by the papers that the lions
have had Bcrdel. the lion king. in
France at last. sir said an old man
with gray hair and unmiStakablr gran
ger appearance. to the HcyUid man In
the r0tunda of the Palmer House the
either dan. We'll, | thought il would
come To that at last. They'll DO il
sooner or later. The bottle does it. sir
A MIN may be "a bold and a. sober IA
hc plcascS till he gets once torn and
then his nerve begins To fail. ANY
mans would if he had half the flesh
torn off his Side>-and then he wants
a dram or two 10 steady him. One
drink leads Ia another. AMI So on, un-
til he gets reckless. allows the worst of
the lot ON which, if he were sober, he
would know he ought to keep his eye,
ret lodging round behind him. or hits
a beast i'm which he ought Ia know
blow viii rouse sleeping devil, or
makes stagger and goes down. and
then the lot are onto him.
You speak as if You knew some
thing of the business. said the Herald
man. Were YOU ever lion king?"
mo, sir; | can't say as ever WAS Il
lion king. / never had the pluck for
that. but I've been in the business all
the same and used to work under this
same Lion King Berdcl as has been
Snva@ed. Ny names Wolfe. Henry
Wolfe. and I've bit of Il farm now out
Peoria ways. I've quit the lion bu>i-
ness many year. hut knew ii we'll
'iWill YOU fell the Hcraid Somcthin"
about lions?"
- am an EngliShman 10y birth. and
WAS Il tanner by trade. hut times was
hard and fell ont of a job. A travel
ing menagerie came along and they
wanted a man To help the lion king.
banding him in his properties when
performing, and such like. and
50 | took the job. Well. Ivy and
10y they got me to 20 into the
cage. but great Scott, didn't 1
funk, and there never WAS a day that |
had to 90 in among the devils that
didn't try a rough bit of a prayer To
drive away the nervousness. Then |
found that brandy took the shine ont
of the PRAYER. and | used always Ia
have a tidy drop inside of me before
| went i'm. | knew the risk of the
brandy. Didn't | get this tear down
my hand one evening when had taken
SO much that didn't see that old lior-
a., creeping around To my back? Still
/ went on drinking. and then AT last
got the delirium tremenS. and then, i'll
stead of seem snakes | SAW lions and
tigers. Sometimes it was the ROYAL
Bengal as was a-catchin' of me. and
sometimes it was the big Nubian. but
they were always there. and when
came out of that boat | never went into
tae cage again.
Three kinds of lions come to this
country and Europe. and the biggest
European importer is Jamrach. The
lions come from the Cape and some
Nubia. and another sort come from
Senegal. You get them from Jamrach
we'll nigh as wild rs the day they were
caught, for | believe he never allows
any of his men to 90 into the cages,
and if he wants To shift them he places
one cage alongside another and drives
them in by placing straw in the den he
wants them to quit. The tiger is not
so sullcn in confinement, but is more
treacherous, and when he once loses
command of himself there is not Il pin
70 ahnoca batu.aa,, him, onH fI,o lin,, ]
think | would sooner. on the whole.
have truck with the lion than the tiger.
Some people will tell YOU that there il
no vice about either. Bosh! It's all
very well totsay that when he puts his
claws INFO you in playful way that
you ought to have presence of mind
and keep still and he will take them
out. But when you feel the claws go
ing into You an inch or more. you can
not help dragging the limb away.
Then the beast drags his way. and
you get torn and the blood comes. and
the animal, partly at the sight of blood
and partly in a fit of desperation. as he
knows he has done wrong. takes hold
anyhow, and the others i'm the cage
catch the infcction-and then You can
say your prayers. The most dangerous
time to interfere is when they are feed
ing. especially if they are gnawing q
bone. 1t is pretty near certain death
for man to go near an old lion Oh
lioness when either is gnawfng a bone
and try to take it away from them. The
lion-tamer likes to get his beasts "a
young as he can. because then they are
more easily brought into order. al